What To Wear To A Black Tie Event

A demonstration of the proper attire for men at a formal black tie event. All the right tips will lend you a debonair look.

I'm here to talk to you about what to wear to a black tie event. So, obviously, the first thing that you want to be considering for a black tie event is your dinner suit, so what I'll be talking you through is every element of the dinner suit that you should be looking to wear to a black tie event. So, firstly, we're going to start with the neckwear.

You would be expected to wear a bow tie to a black tie event, specifically a black bowtie. Although you will find some people wearing colourful bowties and very, very rarely, something I'm not really for, is an actual necktie to a black tie event. It is something that you can wear if you want to be a little bit different, however I would suggest sticking with a bowtie as your neckwear, to a black tie event.

Also another thing, the first thing you should consider when buying a dinner suit is the dinner jacket itself, as you can see mine is velvet. I would always very strongly recommend that you have a shawl collar like mine or a peaked collar. And, although you will see some for sale that have notched collars like your standard business suit, I would highly recommend against buying something like that.

Traditionally, a dinner jacket should have no vents and also no flaps on the pockets. So, the pockets themselves should be jetted, so they should just be slit with 2 welts on the top, 1 welt on the top and 1 welt on the bottom, so no flap on a dinner jacket. Traditionally as well, a dinner jacket, you should never be able to see the waistband of your trousers.

So, the way that's gotten around in most dinner suits is in a waistcoat, like in the case of the one I'm wearing or in a cummerbund, which will also keep the waist covered up. Also, you'll want to wear a dinner shirt with your ensemble and in this case, what you want to be looking for is double button holes along the front placket of the shirt, in which you are meant to be placing dress studs. You'll find dress studs are either in onyx or in mother of pearl.

And the dinner shirt can have 1 of 2 collar types. In the case of mine, I'm wearing the standard collar, although you will find many dinner jacket shirts have wingtip collars. Moving on down, on the actual trouser itself, set in side seam is standard on dinner jacket trousers or on black tie trousers.

They should be made of a heavy weight cloth like a barathea and they will always be black trousers. So regardless of whether or not you're wearing a white jacket, for a daytime black tie event or a dark jacket like mine, for an evening black tie event, the trousers should always be black. The next item to consider is your pocket square, you really should be looking to match it to your shirt colour or to the colour of your waistcoat, should you choose to go for a colourful waistcoat.

It doesn't necessarily need to be a dead-on match and you can also use patterns to make things look a little bit more interesting if you make a flashier looking ensemble with your dinner jacket. The last thing to consider is your footwear. Classic footwear for black tie would be any shoe which is made of black patent leather, traditionally either a pump with a bow or an oxford.